ELECTION 2023

By FRED DALEY
Editor

 

Mayoral races in Pittsfield, North Adams, Troy and Saratoga Springs are headlining a host of local contests as voters cast ballots for a Nov. 7 general election across New York and in the cities of Massachusetts.

Voters in Columbia County will be choosing a new district attorney, Rensselaer County voters will select a new sheriff, and voters in Warren and Washington counties will settle contested races for county clerk. There also are contested town supervisor races in more than 20 rural and suburban towns across Columbia, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Warren and Washington counties.

And voters across New York will decide whether to approve two amendments to the state constitution regarding debt limits for small-city school districts and for sewer infrastructure.
In Pittsfield, a preliminary election last month eliminated one of the three candidates vying to succeed Mayor Linda Tyer, who announced earlier this year that she wouldn’t seek a third term. Now voters must choose between City Council President Peter M. Marchetti, who has served eight terms on the council across more than two decades, and John M. Krol, a former city councilor who worked in the administration of former Mayor James Ruberto. Marchetti, a local banker who has underscored his long service to the community, received 47 percent of the vote in the preliminary election, while Krol, who runs a marketing firm and has cast himself as a change candidate, drew 38 percent.

In North Adams, Mayor Jennifer Macksey, who two years ago became the first woman to win the city’s top office, is seeking a second term. She faces a challenge from Aprilyn Carsno, who also ran for mayor in 2021 but garnered only 25 votes in that year’s preliminary election. Municipal elections in Massachusetts are nonpartisan.

In Troy, the troubles of the city’s police force and a divide between longtime residents and newcomers have been subtexts of a spirited campaign to succeed Mayor Patrick Madden, a Democrat who is barred by term limits from running again. Democratic candidate Nina M. Nichols, a Rensselaer County legislator and former city councilor, is a Texas native who came to the city in 2006 and works for the local human services nonprofit Unity House; she has called for “a safer, cleaner, greener Troy.” Republican candidate Carmella R. Mantello has been the City Council president for nearly eight years and stresses being a lifelong resident and daughter of a former city police detective; she calls for “putting people ahead of politics.”

In Saratoga Springs, Mayor Ronald J. Kim is seeking a second term in a contest shaped by controversy over the city’s handling of police reform and local racial justice protests. Christian Mathiesen, a former city public safety commissioner whose past oversight of the city police department has drawn criticism from Kim, garnered 40 percent of the vote in a Democratic primary challenge to Kim in June and remains on the ballot on the independent “One Saratoga” line. The Republican candidate, John Safford, lost a bid for the mayor’s office in 2015 despite, or perhaps because of, the backing of an alliance of local real estate developers, but he says he hopes to win this time if Kim and Mathiesen split the Democratic vote.

Current city Public Safety Commissioner James Montagnino, a Democrat, also faces a three-way race in his bid for a second term. Montagnino was elected two years ago on a pro-police-reform platform but has antagonized some of his past supporters by supporting criminal charges against Black Lives Matter activists who he says have disrupted City Council meetings. Last month, Kim and the other three members of the council, all Democrats, announced that they’re urging voters to support independent Kristen M. Dart over Montagnino. Dart, a vice president of Planned Parenthood Empire State Acts, is chairwoman of the new Civilian Review Board the city created to investigate allegations of police misconduct. The split between Montagnino and Dart could benefit Republican Timothy Coll, a former FBI investigator who also is running on the “One Saratoga” line.

In Columbia County, the retirement of Republican incumbent Paul Czajka has set the stage for a competitive race for district attorney. Czajka’s chief assistant prosecutor, Ryan M. Carty, is running on the Republican and Conservative lines against Democratic candidate Christopher Liberati-Conant, an assistant state attorney general who says he favors “ending political hires, increasing training and creating specialized bureaus,” including a domestic violence and sex crimes bureau, within the county DA’s office.

Registered Democrats now outnumber Republicans in the county by a 3-2 margin. Only three of the county’s towns – Ancram, Chatham and Stuyvesant – have contested supervisor races.

In Rensselaer County, voters are choosing a successor to Sheriff Patrick Russo, a Republican who is stepping down after two terms. The GOP candidate, Kyle Bourgault, is an administrative sergeant in the sheriff’s office. Democratic candidate Brian G. Owens is a retired Troy police chief.

In Saratoga County, there are contested town supervisor races in Malta, Moreau and Wilton as well as a three-way race for the two seats representing Saratoga Springs on the county Board of Supervisors.

In Warren County, the race to succeed County Clerk Pam Vogel pits Democratic candidate Carrie Black, an assistant director of accounting and finance at SUNY Adirondack, against Republican Emily McCabe McCarthy, a former county deputy Republican elections commissioner.

In Washington County, two-term incumbent County Clerk Stephanie C. Cronin is running as an independent with Democratic support after being snubbed by county Republican leaders, who instead endorsed Lisa J. Boyce, a county social services caseworker, for the clerk’s position.

Only three towns – Greenwich, Hartford and White Creek – have contested supervisor races. In Greenwich, former supervisor Don Ward, a Republican, is trying for a comeback against incumbent Democrat James Nolan, who defeated Ward by 15 votes two years ago. In the open-seat race in White Creek, which includes part of the village of Cambridge, Republican candidate Renee McEvilly, known for her social media posts promoting various far-right causes, is facing Lance Allen Wang, the longtime Cambridge village clerk, an independent who’s running on the Democratic line.